Hello, Rob.
I am sorry you are having trouble with the A-Star 32U4 Prime LV in your Mac lab. You could try running the following commands on a lab computer to get more information about how the computer has detected the A-Star:
ioreg -p IOUSB -w 0
ioreg -p IOUSB -l -w 0
sudo dmesg
Here is a shell session showing the results that I see when I run those commands on a Mac here:
$ ioreg -p IOUSB -w 0
+-o Root <class IORegistryEntry, id 0x100000100, retain 10>
+-o EHCI Root Hub Simulation@1D,7 <class IOUSBRootHubDevice, id 0x100000214, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (11 ms), retain 11>
| +-o HubDevice@fd100000 <class IOUSBHubDevice, id 0x100000262, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (7 ms), retain 15>
| +-o IR Receiver@fd110000 <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x10000026c, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (87 ms), retain 10>
| +-o USB Hub 2.0@fd130000 <class IOUSBHubDevice, id 0x100000287, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (3 ms), retain 13>
| | +-o Dell USB Entry Keyboard@fd132000 <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x100000295, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (65 ms), retain 10>
| | +-o USB Optical Mouse@fd134000 <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x10000029f, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (82 ms), retain 10>
| +-o Pololu A-Star 32U4@fd120000 <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x1000004bc, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (65 ms), retain 12>
+-o EHCI Root Hub Simulation@1A,7 <class IOUSBRootHubDevice, id 0x100000236, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (6 ms), retain 11>
+-o HubDevice@fa100000 <class IOUSBHubDevice, id 0x100000266, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (6 ms), retain 11>
+-o BRCM20702 Hub@fa110000 <class IOUSBHubDevice, id 0x100000282, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (3 ms), retain 11>
+-o Bluetooth USB Host Controller@fa113000 <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x10000029e, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (41 ms), retain 12>
$ ioreg -p IOUSB -l -w 0
...
| +-o Pololu A-Star 32U4@fd120000 <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x1000004bc, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (65 ms), retain 12>
| {
| "sessionID" = 553615357855
| "idProduct" = 8960
| "bNumConfigurations" = 1
| "iManufacturer" = 1
| "bcdDevice" = 256
| "Bus Power Available" = 250
| "bMaxPacketSize0" = 64
| "USB Product Name" = "Pololu A-Star 32U4"
| "iProduct" = 2
| "iSerialNumber" = 0
| "USB Address" = 7
| "IOUserClientClass" = "IOUSBDeviceUserClientV2"
| "bDeviceSubClass" = 0
| "bDeviceClass" = 2
| "bcdUSB" = 512
| "locationID" = 18446744073660399616
| "PortNum" = 2
| "IOCFPlugInTypes" = {"9dc7b780-9ec0-11d4-a54f-000a27052861"="IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOUSBLib.bundle"}
| "bDeviceProtocol" = 0
| "USB Vendor Name" = "Pololu Corporation"
| "Device Speed" = 1
| "idVendor" = 8187
| "Requested Power" = 250
| "IOGeneralInterest" = "IOCommand is not serializable"
| "Low Power Displayed" = No
| }
...
$ sudo dmesg
...
0 [Level 5] [com.apple.message.domain com.apple.commssw.cdc.device] [com.apple.message.signature AppleUSBCDCACMData] [com.apple.message.signature2 0x1FFB] [com.apple.message.signature3 0x2300]
AppleUSBCDCACMData: Version number - 4.3.2b1, Input buffers 8, Output buffers 16
AppleUSBCDC: Version number - 4.3.2b1
$ ls /dev/*modem*
/dev/cu.usbmodemfd121 /dev/tty.usbmodemfd121
There might be settings on the lab computers that restrict what types of USB devices are allowed, or disable certain USB ports. I do not know where you would look for such settings, but you might try asking your system administrator if you have one.
–David